For Grandpa

PetrasRetired

In the Brooder
Feb 17, 2018
3
16
24
South Central Iowa
I don't own a single chicken. . . . yet. I've spent the winter building my first coop, a 4' x 10' dragable skid with insulated house and run under one roof. Right now I'm working on getting the heating system worked out so that hopefully temperatures at floor level will keep water from freezing without cooking the birds on the roost 3 1/2' overhead. I'm undecided as to whether to start with a small clutch of meat birds and then raise my dual purpose hens after harvesting the meat birds or to just raise a few more dual purpose hens than I plan to keep through next winter. My coop is smaller than I wish it were already. By all I've read, my 10 sq ft floor space and 40 sq ft run should house about 4 hens through the winter where they may be confined for a couple of weeks at a time in the worst weather of an Iowa winter. I'm not new to chickens; just new to owning them and being solely responsible for their care. My grandfather cared for our hen flock of 50 birds all the time I was growing up. Since he loved chickens so much, I'm getting into backyard chickens with the honor and hope I'll enjoy them as much as he did. Greetings to all you chicken owners. I look forward to engaging with you.
 
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Welcome aboard to BYC family gr8 people tons of information loads of fun enjoy shake your tail feathers
 
Greetings and welcome to BYC! So glad you joined us. The 40 sqft run is adequate for 4 large fowl birds, but 10 sqft inside a coop isn't really... Best practice inside a coop is 4 sqft/bird. You can get away with less for bantams (~3 sqft) and the requirement drops some as overall coop size increases. The thing is, a LF bird occupies ~1 sqft of space. so they're gonna be in each other's tail feathers and there could be behavior/health issues.

There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home!

Hope you enjoy the site!
 

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